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THEIR MOTHER SHOWS THEM THE MAP. 

See Paf;e no. 


A Dozen Good Times 


THAT 

GEORGIANA AND DOLLY HAD 


BY 

MRS. GEORGE ARCHIBALD , a- • 

AUTHOR OF “lady GAY,” “ THE 
LITTLE BROWN SEED,” ETC. 

(/ ^ ^ 



ILLUSTRA TED 



BOSTON 

LOTHROP PUBLISHING COMPANY 


2ny 


XWO oOH£'3 BECEIVED. 



7950 

Copyright, i8g8, 

BY 

Lothrop Publishing Company. 


dolonial ^rcss: 

Electrotyped and Printed by C, H. Simonds & Co. 
Boston, U. S. A. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER PAGE 

I. A Hollow Day .... 7 

II. A February Funny Day . . 17 

III. March Christmas Gifts . . 28 

IV. An April Fool Day . . -37 

V. Arbor Day ..... 49 

VI. The Circus Parade . . .61 

VII. A PiXBURG Fourth . . . *71 

VIII. An August Party .... 82 

IX. The Interstate Fair • • • 93 

X. The Discovery of America . .104 

XI. Thanksgiving . . . . -115 

XII. Merry Christmas . . . .126 



^ Vi 4 «« aVna* 


LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 


PAGE 

The Basket for Mrs. Lee . . . ii 

Clarence Dances . . . . -13 

Dolly Was Afraid ..... 19 

Speaking Her Piece 25 

Dolly and Nora Talk about the Parade 31 

Their Last Gift 35 

They See Harold Coming • • • 39 

Harold and Dolly Have a Game of 

Checkers ...... 41 

The Dolls 49 

Getting Ready to Plant the Trees . 53 

Going to the Circus .... 62 

Cousin Charlie Entertains Them . . 65 

The Twins 72 

David Puts on the Jones Boy’s Clothes. 79 

Dolly Is Afraid of Strangers . . 85 

At the Wrong Door . . . . .90 

Packing the Lunch- basket . . -94 


LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 

PAGE 

Drinking Chocolate at the Fair . . 97 

Their Mother Shows Them the Map . m 
Examining the Strange Trees. . .113 

The Thanksgiving Dinner . . • n? 

Dolly Touches the Button . . .119 

Merry Christmas 127 

She Wanted to Be Ready to See Santa 

Claus ...... 133 


A DOZEN GOOD TIMES 








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A DOZEN GOOD TIMES. 


CHAPTER I. 

A HOLLOW DAY. 

As Georgina, aged eight, and Dolly, 
aged four, stood looking out of the upper 
half of the sitting-room door, which was 
all window, a sleigh-load of big boys went 
by. They blew on tin horns, waved flags, 
and yelled like young Indians. Dolly 
liked the noise. It was January first. 

“ Is that what it’s holler for ? ” asked 
Dolly. 

7 * 


8 


A DOZEN GOOD TIMES. 


“Holler what.'^” asked Georgina. 
“What’s holler .i^” 

“ Why, holler-day ! ” exclaimed Dolly. 
“ Don’t you know papa doesn’t go to the 
store because it’s a holler-day ? ” 

Georgina looked at her sister with an 
expression of great wisdom. 

“ Oh, my, Dolly, you’ve got it very much 
mistaken ! It isn’t holler, it’s hollow. 
New Year is a hollow day.” 

“Is it.f^” said Dolly. “ I wish it wasn’t.” 

“ Why do you wish it wasn’t ? ” asked 
Georgina. 

“ Because,” said Dolly, “ I thought if it 
was a holler-day we could holler the way 
the boys did. I thought that was the 
reason they did.” 

“ That’s so, we could,” said Georgina, 
half-regretfully. “ But it’s only a hollow 
day.” 


A HOLLOW DAY. 


9 


“Well, then, what’s hollow.'^” asked 
Dolly. 

“ Why, hollow is empty, — not anything 
in it,” explained Georgina. “ I suppose 
that’s why we call New Year a hollow 
day.” 

“Isn’t there anything in New Year.f^” 
asked Dolly, anxiously. 

“ Not much by the side of Christmas. 
Then you have dolls, and books, and 
games, and rings, besides the tree. And 
all you can do with cards under your 
plates is to put them where they won’t 
get dirty.” 

At that very minute Mrs. Pettitt was 
in the kitchen, stuffing a turkey for din- 
ner, and when it was ready for the oven 
it was not hollow by any means. After 
the oven door was shut, she went into the 
cellar with a big basket, — a hollow basket. 


lO 


A DOZEN GOOD TIMES. 


Not many minutes later, she came up 
with the same basket. Jt was not hollow 
then. If you had looked in, you would 
have seen apples, turnips, potatoes,, a 
bowl of jelly, and a big piece of beef. 
On top of these things Mrs. Pettitt laid a 
paper bag of cookies and crackers, and 
another of popped corn. Then she told 
Mr. Pettitt that now they were ready to 
take the basket and call on Mrs. Lee. 

Mrs. Lee was the woman who washed 
for Mrs. Pettitt. She had five little chil- 
dren, and she had to do a good many 
washings to take care of them. The Lee 
family were black as black could be. 

Mr. and Mrs. Pettitt, with Georgina 
and Dolly, rode up to Mrs. Lee’s while 
the turkey was cooking. They all went 
in. The basket went in, too, and perhaps 
the Lees were gladder to see that, than 



THE BASKET FOR MRS. LEE. 








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A HOLLOW DAY. 


13 


the four who brought it. Though they 
were glad to see the four, too. 

Mrs. Pettitt was attracted to one child 
more than to the rest. He was Clarence, 
and he had the brightest 
eyes, the whitest teeth, 
and the jolliest smile you 
can imagine. Mrs. Pettitt 
talked to him, and his 
mother was so pleased 
she asked him to “ dance 
for the lady.” 

The audience was high- 
ly pleased. Mr. Pettitt 

•’ ^ CLARENCE DANCES. 

found five cents for the 

dancer, and a penny for each of the other 

children. 

They all gave their money to their 
mother to put in the bank. The bank 
was a rickety tin elephant on the clock 



14 


A DOZEN GOOD TIMES. 


shelf, but it could doubtless hold all the 
riches the Lees could save. 

“ I’m dretful thankful,” said Mrs. Lee 
as the Pettitts were going. “ I was kind o’ 
blue before you come. The baby fell out 
the high cha’ three or fo’ days ago, an ’es 
’ad a misery in ’is ’ed ever sence, an’ the 
med’sin cos’ a good deal.” 

“ She said she was blue,” Dolly re- 
marked, going home, “ and she’s black.” 

Mrs. Pettitt explained that Mrs. Lee 
meant she felt mournful, and told the chil- 
dren they must look up some books and 
toys for the Lees, and she would find a 
pair of better shoes for Clarence. 

There was no company at their New 
Year dinner, which was a fine one. Dolly 
was rather glad. She thought there 
would be more for her, and she felt very 
hungry. But, do her best, a good deal of 
dinner was left. 


A HOLLOW DAY. 


15 


“ It doesn’t feel like a very hollow day 
in my stomach,” said Georgina. 

“ Nor mine don’t,” said Dolly. 

Mrs. Pettitt did not understand this, 
but Mr. Pettitt did. He had heard the 
talk by the window in the morning. He 
told his wife the “ holler ” and “ hollow ” 
day ideas as soon as he could without 
letting the children hear him. 

That night, when she put them to bed, 
Mrs. Pettitt said : 

“We have had a nice, quiet holiday. 
And before you go to sleep I want to tell 
you what a holiday is„ It is a day when 
people stop their usual work, and rest, 
and enjoy themselves as they like best. 
Christmas, Memorial Day, Fourth of July, 
and Thanksgiving are holidays.” 

“ Why, I thought it was hollow,” said 
Georgina, surprised. “ Anyway, they’re 


1 6 A DOZEN GOOD TIMES. 

splendid. I wish they came every day. 
Don’t you, Dolly ? ” 

But Dolly, who always dropped asleep 
in a minute, if she were overtired, only 
snored gently, and Mrs. Pettitt and Geor- 
gina saw that she could not now say what 
she thought or wished, and had even for- 
gotten her prayers. 

“ Pm awful sorry I forgot them,” she 
said next morning. “ But if I say two 
prayers to-night, and ask God to please 
’sense me, don’t you fink he will } ” 


CHAPTER II. 


A FEBRUARY FUNNY DAY. 

Georgina had entered school the week 
she was eight years old. Dolly intended 
to go as soon as her mother would let her. 
Mrs. Pettitt did not discourage her by 
telling her she must probably wait four 
years longer. 

School was not dismissed on Washing- 
ton’s Birthday, though it is a legal holiday. 
It was to be a special day, however. The 
preparations in Georgina’s room excited 
her so much that she made a queer 
blunder. She was waiting after school 
for her teacher to write a note asking 
Mrs. Pettitt if Georgina could not recite a 


1 8 A DOZEN GOOD TIMES. 

poem. Before directing it Miss Snyder 
said, “ What is your father’s first name, 
Georgina ? ” 

“ George,” said Georgina, promptly, 
“ George Washington.” She meant to 
say George Pettitt. 

Her teacher laughed so much that she 
made a mistake herself, spoiling an en- 
velope by writing “ Mrs. George Wash- 
ington.” So she had to take another. 

Georgina wanted Dolly to go. “ It will 
be an awful funny day,” she said. 

Mrs. Pettitt replied that it would be a 
pity to have Dolly miss a funny day, and 
she would go and take her, if nothing 
happened. 

Dolly was afraid when she first went 
into the schoolroom. She climbed into 
her mother’s lap and hid her face. She 
wondered why the children looked at her. 


A\ 



DOLLY WAS AFRAID 






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A FEBRUARV FUNNY DAY. 


^1 


instead of at the flags, pictures, drawings 
on the blackboard, or at the teacher, or 
each other. 

She did not know that school-children 
like to watch a sweet little visitor, with a 
pleasant bright face and curls sticking out 
of a blue velvet bonnet. 

When it was time to begin, the school 
sang “ Hail, Columbia, Happy Land.” 
They sang it with so much spirit that 
Dolly hardly knew whether to be charmed 
or frightened. 

After that, Mr. Williams, a minister, 
told the children the story of Washing- 
ton, as a child, a young soldier, a great 
general, and the first President of our 
country. Among other things he said : 

“ He was a boy, exactly as the boys 
here are, and he liked to run, play, leap, 
and wrestle. In Fredericksburg, Virginia, 


22 


A DOZEN GOOD TIMES. 


is a Spot by a ferry where they say he 
stood and threw a stone across the Rap- 
pahannock River. He loved to manage 
fiery horses. Once he tried to break a 
fine colt of his mother’s. It reared and 
fell back, killing it. As no one else 
knew anything about it, he could have 
deceived her. But he owned his fault. 
His mother told him she was sorry her 
favorite colt was dead, but was glad her 
son always told the truth.” 

When Mr. Williams’s useful talk was 
done the children clapped their hands 
heartily. Four boys then sang some- 
thing to the tune of “Yankee Doodle.” 
They were scared, and mixed the words 
so badly no one could tell what the song 
was about. But any one could recognize 
the tune. 

Harvey White, a fat little boy in a 


A FEBRUARY FUNNY DAY. 


23 


pretty suit of clothes, and new red neck- 
tie, next tried to entertain the company. 
He walked forward bravely, bowed, and 
began : 

“ When General Washington was young. 
About as big as I — ” 

When he got there, he forgot the next 
line. He cleared his throat, and began 
again, saying the same words. But he 
got no farther. He tried once more. 
Poor Harvey! Only those two lines 
stayed in his memory, and at last he 
exclaimed : 

“ Anyway, when General Washington 
was young, about as big as I, he wouldn’t 
tell a lie.” 

Then he ran off the platform to his 
seat, and every one laughed and cheered 
loudly. 


24 A DOZEN GOOD TIMES. 

It was now Georgina’s turn. Her 
name was called, and with very red cheeks 
she recited these words in a clear, pleas- 
ant voice : 

“We cannot all be Washingtons, 

And have our birthdays celebrated ; 

But we can love the things he loved, 

And we can hate the things he hated. 

“ He loved the truth, he hated lies. 

He minded what his mother taught him, 
And every day he tried to do 

The simple duties that it brought him. 

“ Perhaps the reason little folks 

Are sometimes great when they grow 
taller. 

Is just because, like Washington, 

They do their best when they are 
smaller.” 


A FEBRUARY FUNNY DAY. 25 

On the way home Georgina asked her 
mother if she could hear every word, and 
Mrs. Pettitt said she could. 

“ I’m glad,” said Georgina. “ I felt 
real queer. I couldn’t 
hardly hear it myself. 

And I forgot all about 
I had my best dress 
on.” 

“ Well, how do you 
like school ? ” asked Mr. 

Pettitt of Dolly. 

“ Oh ! some of it I 
do, and some I don’t,” 
answered Dolly. “ I 
like flags and fings, 

SPEAKING HER PIECE. 

and when they sing, 

and it was awful fun when the boy kept 

saying his poem over all the while.” 

“ I should think it wasn’t for the boy,” 



26 


A DOZEN GOOD TIMES. 


said Georo^ina. “You’re terrible afraid 
when you speak pieces, and when you for- 
get them, prob’bly you’re afraider. Did 
you ever speak a piece, papa ? ” 

“ Once, when I was about eleven,” said 
her father. “ I had always said I never 
would, but the rule in the school was, that 
those who wouldn’t speak could not go 
into a higher class. So I learned some 
verses, and wore some new trousers to 
speak them in. Now your grandma had 
made those trousers on a one-thread 
machine, and when I made a deep bow, I 
discovered that one leg was ripped nearly 
to the knee. And I was so embarrassed 
I rushed out of the door, grabbed my hat, 
and ran home.” 

Georgina drew a long breath, 

“ Did you get whipped ? ” she asked in 
alarm. 


A FEBRUARY FUNNY DAY. 


27 


“No; my teacher forgave me when I 
was sent back to explain. And afterward 
I spoke my piece all right.” 

“Was it Washington’s Birthday ” 
asked Dolly. 

“No; it was only a plain day,” said 
Mr. Pettitt. 

“ That’s too bad. Holidays are such 
funny days.” 

“ I think they are, too,” agreed Geor- 
gina. “ I am glad there was a February 
funny day.” 


CHAPTER III. 


MARCH CHRISTMAS GIFTS. 

There were two of them, and Geor- 
gina and Dolly liked to pretend that all 
their presents belonged to some particular 
day. 

One of the March arrivals really was 
a tardy Christmas gift. It came all the 
way from Michigan. 

The girls stood by their father, while it 
was unboxed in the barn, wondering what 
it could be. 

It was mainly composed of a “curly- 
maple ” board, two feet wide and eight 
long, polished like glass. When ready 
for use, it stood firmly, slanted like an old- 

28 


MARCH CHRISTMAS GIFTS. 


29 


fashioned cellar door, and a little flight of 
four steps, hinged fast, led to the upper 
end. 

The first thing Mr. Pettitt did, after he 
had adjusted it, was to seize his daughters, 
put them on the board at the top of the 
flight of steps, and let them spin down 
the whole eight feet to the barn floor. 
You should have heard their screams, 
which became twice as deafening, when 
their papa caught their slender mamma, 
and served her exactly the same awful 
trick. 

This new amusement was a parlor to- 
boggan slide, invented by a Michigan 
mother, who had noticed how boys and 
girls like to slide down things. She had 
sent one of the handsomely made play- 
things to Georgina and Dolly, and they 
and their small acquaintances had “ stacks 


30 


A DOZEN GOOD TIMES. 


of fun ” with it, especially when warm 
weather came, and it could be set up on 
the lawn. 

It arrived the morning of Saint Patrick s 
Day, which chanced to be on a Saturday, 
and it was put in the sitting-room, where 
it helped to comfort Dolly, who had 
wished to go with Nora to see the pa- 
rade. 

Nora had talked to Dolly about the 
pleasure there is in parades, parties, and 
various other Saint Patrick celebrations. 

“Will Saint Patrick be there ” asked 
Dolly. 

“ Laudys ! ” said Nora. “ Saint Patrick 
was dead long enough before I was born 
mesilf.” 

“ Why, of course, Dolly,” said Georgina, 
who was listening, “ everybody that has a 
day, has to be dead. Don’t you know, — 


DOLLY AND NORA TALK ABOUT THE PARADE. 





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MARCH CHRISTMAS GIFTS. 


33 


Washington, and Decoration Day, and 
the men that made Fourth of July.” 

“ That’s so,” said Dolly. “ I never 
fought of that.” 

“ It’s the reward of goodness,” said 
Nora. 

“What is, — being dead.?” asked Geor- 
gina. 

“ Bliss me, no ! Havin’ a day in honor 
of you,” Nora replied, hastily. 

“Was Saint Patrick good.?” queried 
Dolly, who liked to be exact. 

“I should say so!” said Nora. “He 
killed ivery blissid snake in Ireland.” 

“ What’s a blissid snake .? ” asked Dolly. 

Nora, being a trifle puzzled, avoided an 
answer, by saying : 

“ Now, if you don’t bother me wid my 
work, an’ your ma’ll let you, mebbe I’ll 
take you to see the p’rade.” 


34 


A DOZEN GOOD TIMES. 


“ Oh ! can I ? And Georgina ? ” 

But Georgina hastened to say, “ Oh ! 
I’m going to do something different. 
Were there many snakes, Nora.f^” 

“ T’ousands,” answered Nora, briefly. 

“ Mow’d he kill them ? ” asked Dolly. 

“How do I know.f^” returned Nora, 
rather impatiently. “ Didn’t I say he was 
dead long enough before I was born ? ” 

^ “ Long enough for what ? ” asked Dolly. 

Nora made no answer. 

“ I should think he would be dead,” said 
Georgina. “ Killing snakes can’t be very 
healthy.” 

As an amusement for Dolly, the parade 
did not meet the approval of Mrs. Pettitt. 
So Dolly stayed at home, and the tobog- 
gan slide helped her to forget her disap- 
pointment. 

But, as if one Christmas gift was not 


MARCH CHRISTMAS GIFTS. 


35 


enough for March seventeenth, there 
came to the door, soon after dinner, the 
driver of a big express-wagon. In his 
hand was a package, 
directed to Georgina. 

Mrs. Pettitt let Geor- 
gina sign her name 
in the expressman’s 
book, and they then 
opened the box. For 
it was a box. 

Both children 
jumped back when 
the contents were ex- 
posed. “ What is it ? ” 

“Shut it up quick!” 

“Will it bite.?” 

“ What’s sticking out of its head .? ” “ Who 
sent it ? ” These were a few of the ques- 
tions and exclamations. 



THEIR LAST GIFT. 


36 


A DOZEN GOOD TIMES. 


“ It can’t hurt you. It’s a horned toad, 
and I presume Edgar sent it,” said Mrs. 
Pettitt. “ He promised you one ” 

Edgar was second cousin to the chil- 
dren, and lived in California, and he had 
successfully sent a horned toad to New 
York State. 

The toad was a popular menagerie in 
the neighborhood for many days, but as 
the children were afraid to care for it, 
and there was no very good place for 
it, it was finally presented to the Y, M. 
C. A., as an addition to its collection of 
small alligators, of lizards, and the like. 


CHAPTER IV. 


AN APRIL FOOL DAY. 

“Then can’t we do anyfing.f^” asked 
Dolly. 

“ You can do a good many things,” her 
mother replied. 

“ But we can’t tie up fooling fings in 
paper, and put them on the sidewalk, and 
hollo ‘ April fool ’ to whoever picks them 
up, same as Gershom Brown said he did.” 

“ No, my dear. That sort of April fool- 
ing isn’t nice for my little girls. Your 
mamma doesn’t approve of fun that makes 
somebody feel bad.” 

“ Will it be any hurt when Georgina 
comes home from school to say, ‘ Guess 


37 


38 A DOZEN GOOD TIMES. 

who’s been here,’ and when she can’t, to 
say, ‘ April Fool ’ ? ” asked Dolly. 

“ Not a bit,” answered Mrs. Pettitt; and 
then, looking out of the window, she ex- 
claimed, “ Guess who’s coming ! ” 

“Nobody,” said Dolly. “You can’t 
April fool me.” 

Mrs. Pettitt laughed, and just then the 
sound of boyish feet, on the steps outside, 
made Dolly run to see who it was. What 
was her joy to see Harold Duane, who 
had run ahead of cousin Angie ! 

Harold was cousin to Angie, and An- 
gie was a young lady cousin to Dolly 
and Georgina, and that made Harold 
seem like a relation, too. 

“ Oh, Harold, Pm so glad you came ! ” 
cried Dolly. 

“ Tho’m I,” answered Harold, who was 
only five, and lisped. He pulled off his 


AN APRIL FOOL DAY. 


39 


little overcoat, and revealed a cunnino- 

o 

black velvet suit, with a wide collar at his 
neck, Dolly regarded him admiringly. 



THEY SEE HAROLD COMING. 


“ Sit down in my little rocker,” she said. 
“ You must be tired. It’s a good ways to 
come.” 



40 


A DOZEN GOOD TIMES. 


“ Yeth, it ith a good wayth,” said Har- 
old. “ But it ithn’t tho far ath it wath the 
firth time I came.” 

“ Isn’t it ? ” asked Dolly. “ What’s the 
reason it isn’t, mamma 

“ It is, really,” answered Mrs. Pettitt ; 
“only it seems farther the first time we 
take a long walk, than it does when 
we take the same walk soon again.”* 

“ Does it } ” said Dolly. “ Then we 
wouldn’t get so tired if we didn’t go 
anywhere till after we had been before, 
would we ? ” 

Mrs. Pettitt smiled and said that was 
a pretty hard question, and she thought 
they would better play something. 

So they played fish-pond, catching very 
large pasteboard fish, an inch and a half 
long. They played checkers, too, and 
when their men were nearly all jumped. 










AN APRIL FOOL DAY. 


43 


they changed the game to “give-away,” 
so they would not be so badly beaten. 
After that they went out-of-doors to play 
with a big kite which Mr. Pettitt had 
made for Dolly and Georgina. They car- 
ried it between them, and then Dolly held 
it while Harold took the string and tried 
to start it by running. But they only 
succeeded in dragging it on the ground. 
This was partly because neither of them 
knew how to manage a kite, and partly 
because there was not a bit of wind. 
They tried a good many times, and then 
went back into the house. 

“ Well, did you have a nice time ? ” 
asked Mrs. Pettitt. 

“We had a pretty nice time,” answered 
Dolly, “ and we would have had a splendid 
time, only we couldn’t either of us shoot 
off the kite at all.” 


44 


A DOZEN GOOD TIMES. 


Dolly always told about shooting off a 
kite, and firing off a kite, as if it were 
a firecracker. 

“ It is too still to fly a kite,” said Mrs. 
Pettitt. “ I think it is going to snow.” 

“ Oh ! do you ? ” cried Dolly. “ Isn’t 
that too bad ? ” 

“ Why, don’t you like the thnow ? ” 
asked Harold. 

“ In the winter I do, but in the spring 
I don’t; and now it’s spring,” answered 
Dolly. 

“ A snow-storm would be a real mean 
April fool to-day, wouldn’t it, Dolly ? ” 
asked Angie. 

“Yes, it would,” said Dolly. 

“Well, I like thnow all the time,” said 
Harold, in his droll, slow little way. “ I 
like to throw thnow-ballth. Thay, Dolly, 
did you ever kill a grath-hopper with a 
th now-ball ? ” 


AN APRIL FOOL DAY. 


45 


“ No,” replied Dolly. “ Did you ? ” 

“ No, I didn’t,” answered Harold. “ But 
I with I did.” 

It was not very long after Harold went 
home before Georgina came, and she had 
plenty of things to tell about the April 
fool tricks that had come under her ob- 
servation. She talked about them so 
much that she and Dolly were much 
longer than usual eating dinner. After 
dinner they followed their mother into 
the sitting-room, and Georgina said, “ Did 
ever anything much happen on April 
fool’s day, when you were little ? ” 

“ Why, once,” said Mrs. Pettitt, “ some- 
thing happened that seemed a good 
deal to us. My mother told my little 
sister that she might go and play an 
hour with another girl who lived on the 
corner below us.” 


46 


A DOZEN GOOD TIMES. 


“How old was your sister.?” asked 
Dolly. 

“ She was six. After she had been 
gone an hour and a half I was sent after 
her, and she was not there, and had not 
been there.” 

“ Oh, my ! ” exclaimed Georgina. “ What 
did you do .? ” 

“ I went back and told my mother, and 
we all immediately began to search. But 
not a trace of her could we get. Then 
my father was sent for, and he dragged 
the cistern, with an awfully worried look 
on his face. Finally he started out to 
get the village crier to cry, ‘ Lost child.’ ” 

“ How do they do that ? ” asked Dolly. 

“Years ago, and perhaps yet in small 
places, a man used to go through the 
streets, ringing a bell, and calling out, 
‘ Lost child, lost child ! ’ and then he 


AN APRIL FOOL DAY. 


47 


would shout a description of the child. 
It sounds very sad, indeed. It did to us, 
when we heard it that day. He came 
straight by our house, and every one ran 
out to see and hear. Our next-door neigh- 
bors, who knew nothing about it, ran out, 
and among their children was my white- 
headed sister, who came rushing home in 
great excitement, to tell us somebody’s 
little girl was lost.” 

“ Oh, suds ! Did she truly ? ” said Dolly. 

“ Of course she did truly, or mamma 
wouldn’t tell it,” said Georgina. 

“ Yes, it is true,” said Mrs. Pettitt. 
“ And she was very innocent, only that 
she had forgotten herself in her play, 
and overstayed her time. The next-door 
neighbor’s name was Hoskin, and the 
people on the corner were named Hodg- 
kin, and she had misunderstood her 


48 


A DOZEN GOOD TIMES. 


permission, and in our fright we never 
thought about inquiring next door. You 
may be sure we were pretty happy at the 
way it turned out.” 

“Well, it was a good April fool as far 
as being fooled goes, but it must have 
been quite discomfortable,” said Geor- 
gina. 


CHAPTER V. 


ARBOR DAY. 

They never dreamed of having an Ar- 
bor Day until after dinner. So it was 
really half gone before it began. It had 
been one of the days when no play was 
any fun except a very few minutes at a 
time. Something was the matter with all 
the dolls. If they did not leak sawdust, 
their arms were off, or their wigs were 
shed, leaving them homely and shining 
on top of their bisque heads. The end 
of Julia’s nose was worn through, and the 
blonde doll had broken her stomach in a 
way that entirely spoiled the set of her 
dresses. 

The paper dolls were not a bit more 


49 


50 


A DOZEN GOOD TIMES. 


encouraging. There were over two hun- 
dred, counting those cut from colored 
fashion plates. When Dolly began to 
sort the store dolls from among them, and 
the best of the “ cut-outs,” she became ner- 



THE DOLLS. 


vous with only handling them, and seeing 
how limpsy their legs and necks were. 
And as for the toboggan slide, they dis- 
agreed about a word, until they forgot 
that they could have had a good time 
with that. 


ARBOR DAY. 


51 


When the slide came into her mind, 
Dolly had said, “We might tobog a little 
while.” 

And Georgina had replied, “ It isn’t 
tobog, Dolly; it is toboggan. We might 
toboggan a little while.” 

And Dolly had persisted, “No; it is 
a toboggan itself, and you tobog on it.” 

And in settling this question, they did 
as many settlers of other questions have 
done. Each tried to convince the other, 
and in the end stood exactly as when they 
began. 

After dinner they went out-of-doors, and 
there it occurred to Georgina that they 
might have an Arbor Day. The day be- 
fore had been the truly Arbor Day, and 
Georgina had taken part in the school 
exercises. Also, Dolly had gone with her 
mamma to witness them. Why shouldn’t 


52 


A DOZEN GOOD TIMES. 


they have an Arbor Day all by them- 
selves ? Why, it was the very thing ! 

“ You see,” said Georgina, as they were 
getting their hoe, rake, and shovel, “ if we 
never plant trees, and by and by our big 
ones dry up and die, and there comes a 
hot summer, we won’t get a drop of rain, 
because we haven’t any trees to draw the 
clouds. And our yard would look mis- 
’rable without a spear of grass on it, and 
everybody else’s green as — ” 

She paused for a word. “ Green as 
grass,” said Dolly. 

‘Wes, as green as that, only grass is 
what we’re saying it about, and I was 
going to say as green as something else 
if I could have thought of it.” 

“ You might say green corn,” suggested 
Dolly. 

“ That’s white,” said Georgina. 


o 

w 

H 

H 

h- H 

O 

w 

> 

D 

k! 

H 

O 

> 

H 

H 

X 

M 

H 

W 

m 

» 





ARBOR DAY. 


55 


“Yes, after it’s peeled. But before, it 
isn’t.” 

“ That’s so. But now we’ve got to get 
some trees. I’d like to plant about four; 
and let’s plant a cherry, and a horse-chest- 
nut, and a locust, and there isn’t any more 
we can. The maples are too high up.” 

“ A raspberry ! ” exclaimed Dolly. 
“ There’s lots of them we could get.” 

“ Oh ! but they’re only bushes. We’ve 
got to have trees.” 

“Well, if you* plant them for trees, 
won’t they make trees ? ” asked Dolly. 

“Maybe they would. You can try it 
for yours, if you want to,” said Georgina. 
She was busily digging the first of the 
four holes. When all were dug, the two 
sisters went about the yard to select their 
trees. From the garden they pulled up a 
young cherry-tree about a foot high ; the 


56 A DOZEN GOOD TIMES. 

raspberry experiment was easily got, but 
the horse-chestnut limbs were far above 
their reach, and they were quite discour- 
aged until Dolly remembered a long 
string of horse-chestnuts they had gath- 
ered and put on a cord the fall before. 
One of these they concluded to plant. 
They gave up the idea of a locust-tree, 
because Georgina happened to think that 
the locusts were a plague that killed 
every green thing, in the Bible story 
about Egypt, which her mother had told 
her. Besides, there was a low evergreen 
from which it would be much easier to 
get a slip. 

When the three trees and the nut were 
planted, and well watered, Georgina told 
Dolly they must name the trees for some- 
body. That is what Professor Burns did 
at school. They could choose school 


ARBOR DAY. 


57 


names for two, and name the others after 
their father and mother. So one was 
named for Mr. Whittier, one for Mr. 
Holmes, one for Mr. George Pettitt, and 
one for Mrs. George Pettitt. 

“ Now we must recite something by 
each tree,” said Georgina. 

“ How can we, when we ar’n’t in 
school ? ” asked Dolly. 

“ I don’t mean lessons,” said Georgina ; 
“ I mean verses that belong to the folks 
the trees are for.” 

“ I can’t,” said Dolly ; “ I don’t know a 
singly one.” 

“Well, I can do that. You stand by 
me, and I’ll say them, by each one. I 
know something that Mr. Whittier wrote. 
Mamma told it in the ‘ Barefoot Boy.’ 
It’s about trees, too. I’ll say that by his 


tree.’ 


58 


A DOZEN GOOD TIMES. 


She stood up by the cherry-tree, and 
said, in a solemn, sermon kind of tone : 

“ Mine on bending orchard trees. 
Apples of Cusperidesr 

Three or four steps brought her to the 
raspberry, which was named for Holmes. 
Here, she impressively recited : 

“ Homes, Homes, sweet, sweet homes. 

Be it ever so humble, there’s no place 
like homes.” 

But between the evergreen twig and 
the buried horse-chestnut she paused, 
puzzled. 

“ I can't think of a thing for papa and 
mamma,” she said. 

A bright look flashed over Dolly’s face. 


ARBOR DAY. 


59 


“ Let me. I haven’t done any. I know 
a verse that’s got papa and mamma bofe 
in.” 

“All right. You say it, then,” said 
Georgina. “ I’ve said two, and that will 
be the same as two to you.” 

“Won’t you laugh asked Dolly, 
rather afraid to try this new play. Be- 
ing assured that Georgina wouldn’t think 
of such a thing, Dolly ventured to repeat, 
with some emphasis: 

“ When little Ned was sent to bed. 

He always acted right ; 

He kissed mamma, and then papa. 
And bid them both good night.” 

“ I forget the ’nother verse,” she said, 
“but anyway, that’s got about mamma 
and papa in it.” 


6o 


A DOZEN GOOD TIMES. 


Georgina was quite impressed by Dol- 
ly’s thoughtfulness, and Arbor Day exer- 
cises were voted a great success, though 
the children were much disappointed that 
the trees all died. 


CHAPTER VI. 


THE CIRCUS PARADE. 

Georgina and Dolly were much excited 
about the circus parade. They were not 
going to the circus, because Dolly was 
so afraid of the animals that she could 
not have been induced to stay in the tent. 
But she was anxious to see the parade. 
She could sit on Doctor Dukesberry’s ve- 
randa, and Georgina assured her the ani- 
mals would never think of such a thing 
as getting out of the cages, and coming- 
over an iron fence into the yard. 

“ Besides,” said cousin Charlie, “ I 
would stamp my feet and hollo ‘ shoo ! ’ 

6i 


62 


A DOZEN GOOD TIMES. 


and snap this whip at them. I guess 
they would run then.” 

Cousin Charlie, who was seven, was 



GOING TO THE CIRCUS. 


visiting Georgina and Dolly. He lived 
in a larger city than did the little girls, 
and they felt a good deal of confidence 
in him on that account. 


THE CIRCUS PARADE. 


63 


Dolly was impatient to start early. 
Charlie assured her there was plenty of 
time to get there. Parades were always 
behind time. 

Long before parade time, Dolly and 
Georgina and Charlie sat on Doctor 
Dukesberry’s veranda in excited expecta- 
tion. They would have grown quite tired 
of waiting if the crowds coming and go- 
ing had not diverted them. Besides, they 
listened to two stories in the meantime. 

The first was told by cousin Charlie, 
who said he heard it from Kate Niggle, 
that worked for Helen Whitney’s mother. 

“ They’s a man,” said Charlie, “ that 
always goes in the lion’s den. Did you 
ever see them, Georgina ? ” 

“ I saw a picture of Daniel,” said Geor- 
gina. 

“ Oh I that isn’t anything. Daniel’s 


64 A DOZEN GOOD TIMES. 

lions couldn’t open their mouths. But 
circus lions, they can open theirs as wide 
as that.” 

Charlie stretched his hands apart as 
far as they could go, and then thinking 
that did not fairly represent a lion’s 
open mouth, he swung himself around 
on the veranda floor, and separated his 
feet to their utmost distance from each 
other. 

“ Oh, suds ! I should think the man 
would be afraid,” said Dolly. 

“ Well, sir, he isn’t a mite. He just 
sits in the den, — that’s the cage, you 
know, — and snaps his whip, and puts 
his head in the lion’s mouth, and the 
lion dar’sn’t say a word.” 

Cousin Fred, a young man who had 
spied the Pettitts on the veranda and 
come in to sit by them, laughed heartily. 


COUSIN CHARLIE ENTERTAINS THEM. 


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THE CIRCUS PARADE. 


67 


“ I had a little circus all by myself, 
once,” said cousin Fred. “ When I was 
out in California I got up early one morn- 
ing, and took a long ride on the high bi- 
cycle I used to have ; and just as I had 
turned to go back, I heard a big bellow- 
ing, and when I looked, there was a herd 
of about twenty cattle after me. They 
had probably never seen a bicycle, and it 
made them mad. I was pretty well fright- 
ened, and went about as fast as I could, 
and they did not overtake me. But if my 
wheel had broken, or I had taken a header, 
I am afraid I should not have seen this 
parade.” 

These wild stories had made Dolly so 
timid that she climbed into Mrs. Pettitt’s 
lap, and was rather nervous when she 
heard the first strains of the circus band. 
But she soon began to enjoy the beautiful 


68 


A DOZEN GOOD TIMES. 


horses, the gaily dressed men and women, 
the music, the funny clown, who kept bow- 
ing to the crowd, while the Old Woman 
in the Shoe, Mother Goose, and Santa 
Claus, in gilded chariots, were like a bit of 
fairy-land. 

She could not restrain her nervous fear 
of the animals, however, and was frantic 
with fright when she saw a man sitting 
in the lion’s cage. 

She shut her eyes, and would not look 
up until they assured her the dreadful 
cage was far past. As for the camels 
and elephants, they would certainly have 
made the child a little bit crazy if her 
mother, in whose word she had perfect 
reliance, had not told her they neither 
could nor would hurt her. 

The children had much to talk about 
when they reached home. Their grand- 


THE CIRCUS PARADE. 69 

mamma listened. Then she told them an 
experience of her own. 

“ I went to the circus when I was a 
little older than Charlie,” she said ; “ the 
keeper of the elephants offered to let any 
of the children ride who would like to. 
And I rode around the ring with some 
other children.” 

“ Oh, suds ! Did you ? Were you a per- 
former ? ” asked Dolly. 

“ No ; I was only a little country girl. 
The circus was quite different from those 
of nowadays, and was held in a small 
town. It was considered quite a fine 
thing for a child to get an elephant ride.” 

That night Dolly woke from sleep, 
screaming. 

“ What is the matter } ” asked her 
mother, much frightened. 

“ Oh, suds ! ” cried Dolly ; “ I went to 


70 


A DOZEN GOOD TIMES. 


go across the road and a horse bit my 
head clear off.” 

And it was some time before she could 
be convinced that her head was quite safe, 
and she might go to sleep in peace. 


CHAPTER VII. 

A PIXBURG FOURTH. 

PiXBURG was a small village six miles 
from the city where Georgina and Dolly 
lived. The twins lived in Pixburg. They 
were six weeks older than Georgina, and 
their names were Ruth and Anna Ruther- 
ford. Georgina and Dolly were very fond 
of the twins. They could not tell which 
one they liked best, on account of the 
other one. 

They went to spend the Fourth with 
the Rutherfords. Their mother also went, 
and they took an early start on the beau- 
tiful summer morning. They carried a 


71 


72 


A DOZEN GOOD TIMES. 


bundle of fourteen packs of firecrackers, 
besides a few small fireworks to add to 
the Rutherford demonstration. 



THE TWINS. 


They rode about a mile on the electric 
car to the railroad station, and there they 
waited for the train. They visited with 
several friends while they waited, until 
a train came steaming up, which their 


A PIXBURG FOURTH. 


73 


mother said passed through Pixburg. It 
did, but when the conductor took their 
tickets, he told them it did not stop there. 
The train which did stop had gone while 
they sat waiting for this one. 

Mrs. Pettitt was dismayed, but the kind 
conductor offered to let them off at Pix- 
burg, and they were transferred from the 
car to the little village, with scarcely any 
delay to the train, which steamed swiftly 
away as the Pettitts crossed the station 
platform. Mrs. Pettitt laughed, and said 
it was not every one who could travel by 
special train. 

On account of the blunder with the 
train, no one met them. But when they 
were near the pretty Rutherford house, a 
carriage-load of people called to them 
from behind, and the astonished Ruther- 
fords, twins and all, drove to the sidewalk. 


74 


A DOZEN GOOD TIMES. 


Explanations and laughter followed, and 
the twins’ young lady aunts, Jennie and 
Bertha, alighted, that the visitors might 
enter the carriage for a ride which was 
planned for them. 

This ride was a charming one, all up 
and down the village streets and some 
pretty country roads thereabout. But 
Georgina and Dolly were more enter- 
tained by the many children they saw 
than by all the other entertaining things. 
It seemed as if most of them were named 
after the Rutherfords and wore the out- 
grown garments of the twins. This was 
because they chanced to pass many 
houses where lived men employed in 
Mr. Rutherford’s tannery, or whose wives 
had worked for Mrs. Rutherford. And 
because the Rutherfords had been help- 
ful, the men and women had been grate- 


A PIXBURG FOURTH. 


75 


ful, and the children showed the friendly 
feelings of all, in their names. 

When they returned from the ride, 
David had come. He was the cousin 
of the twins, and lived twelve miles from 
Pixburg in an opposite direction from the 
home of the Pettitts. His papa came with 
him. His papa was on business. David 
was on business, too. 

The first business was croquet. The 
firecrackers were not to be fired until 
after dinner, when they were to be taken 
down by the creek, and the time of wait- 
ing must be improved by as much fun as 
could be put into it. The children played 
croquet well, and Dolly, being so small, 
was considered quite remarkable. After 
croquet, Mr. Rutherford helped in a game 
of baseball. The bat was a big stick 
when Mr. Rutherford and David were 


76 


A DOZEN GOOD TIMES. 


batters, but the girls used a toy broom. 
They could hit better. 

Down by the creek, where they went 
for their Fourth, was a splendid place 
where gravel and clean tan-bark was 
spread, and here the combined crackers 
of three families were shot off with more 
noise and smell of powder than any one 
but children could enjoy. Mr. Ruther- 
ford was overseer, and the mothers were 
not afraid of accidents. 

But there was one. Not by fire, but by 
water. David, led away by his patriot- 
ism, resolved to wave a flag on a big 
stone, well out in the creek. And that 
wave cost him his footing. Down he 
went into the wet, wet water, he and his 
pretty visiting suit, — almost too pretty 
for July fourth, if there had been no creek 
to fall into. 


A PIXBURG FOURTH. 


77 


David’s uncle fished him out, and there 
was a melancholy procession to the house. 

“ What is the matter ? ” cried Mrs. 
Rutherford. 

“ I fell into the creek a little,” said 
David, “and I guess I’ve got a little 
wet.” 

“ I ‘ guess ’ you have,” assented aunt 
Rutherford. 

What could she do ? If he had only 
been a girl she could have fitted him out 
in some of the twins’ clothes. Now, she 
must strip him and try to dry him before 
train time. Poor David had to don the 
biggest twin’s stockings and slippers, and 
some of her underclothes, and wrap a 
shawl around him while his suit was 
hung by the kitchen fire. 

And alas ! the clothes would not dry on 
time. Aunt Rutherford became quite ner- 


78 A DOZEN GOOD TIMES. 

vous as the hour drew near when he must 
go back with his father. Then she hap- 
pened to think of something. She would 
go and explain the situation to Mrs. Jones, 
whose husband kept the Pixburg House, 
and whose boy was not much older than 
David. Mrs. Jones would lend her a 
suit. But Mrs. Jones’s boy had only two 
suits, and was gone away, with the best 
one. So David was dressed in the every- 
day costume of a boy about a head taller 
and much fatter than himself, a patched 
suit, too. He knew he looked very queer 
in it, and he cast appealing looks at his 
aunt, as she declared him all right for 
his journey. 

On account of the accident, the Pix- 
burg Fourth could not be called a perfect 
glory. But it had enough glory in it to 
fill the hearts of the four girls with joy. 


DAVID PUTS ON THE JONES BOY’S CLOTHES. 







>v\\\vs\'y 






A PIXBURG FOURTH. 


8l 


The fireworks were a complete success, 
and the Pettitts parted from the Ruther- 
fords, at train time, with congratulations 
about the pleasure they had found in 
being together. 

At ten o’clock, Georgina and Dolly 
were covered up, to rest their tired bodies 
by a night’s sleep. Mrs. Pettitt kissed 
them both several times. One good-night 
kiss was never enough. As she put the 
last one on Dolly’s red lips, she said : 

“ Well, was it as much fun as you 
thought it would be ? ” 

And Dolly said, sleepily, “Won’t you 
please excuse me from answering you till 
to-morrow ? Pve got such a good start to 
go to sleep.” 


CHAPTER VIII. 


AN AUGUST PARTY. 

Although Georgina’s Sunday school 
teacher had no children of her own, she 
gave a children’s party. To it she invited 
Georgina and Dolly. 

“ There will be some real nice girls and 
boys there,” she said. 

“ Oh, suds ! ” said Dolly, when she had 
gone, “ there are going to be boys there ! ” 

“Never mind,” said Georgina, “some 
boys are quite nice. Besides, anybody 
can pretend they don’t see them, if they 
want to.” 

“ Well, when I get there, if there are 

82 


AN AUGUST PARTY. 83 

lots of boys, and they look big, I shall 
stay in the hall,” said Dolly. 

“ Oh, please don’t,” entreated Georgina. 
“ If you do you’ll want me to stay with 
you. You’d better not go at all, than 
do that.” 

“ No, you hadn’t. When you don’t go 
to parties you don’t get any ice-cream,” 
replied Dolly. 

On the party day Mr. Pettitt drove to 
the house of the hostess, leaving the chil- 
dren, with a kiss apiece, on the horse- 
block. Georgina dreaded, as she went 
up the steps, to ring the bell. But Mrs. 
Howitt saved her the trouble by opening 
the door before they got to it. It was a 
screen-door. 

They went shyly in and were shown a 
very pretty room, where they took off 
their hats, and shook out their perfumed 


84 A DOZEN GOOD TIMES. 

handkerchiefs. Dolly had put three kinds 
of perfumery on hers. 

When they got to the door of the par- 
lor, Dolly hung back. 

Georgina explained that she was afraid 
of strangers. 

“ Why are you afraid of strangers, 
Dolly ? ” said Mrs. Howitt. 

“ I am, if I don’t know them,” replied 
Dolly. But when she had been gently 
led in, she saw many familiar faces, and 
soon forgot her fear. 

They played many lovely games. Mrs. 
Howitt played with them exactly as if she 
were little, too. 

There was one boy there named Alex- 
ander. He had a sweet sister not much 
larger than Dolly. Perhaps Mrs. Howitt 
invited Alexander on account of this sis- 
ter, for he was too rude to be pleasant 


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AN AUGUST PARTY. 


87 


at a party. He snatched the little girls’ 
pocket-handkerchiefs away from them, 
and tried to pull chairs out from under 
the boys. Mrs. Howitt had to speak to 
him about it. She told him that he must 
never pull a chair from under anybody, 
for it was very dangerous. People have 
been crippled for life in that way, and 
even killed 

Florence Golden was at the party, and 
Dolly asked her why her sister Sibyl did 
not come. Florence replied that Sibyl’s 
kindergarten teacher had called, just as 
they were ready to start, and Sibyl had 
to wait to see her. 

“ But I should think she would come 
before this time,” said Florence. “ It’s 
more than time enough.” 

“ Why, here she comes,” said Georgina, 
looking out the window, “ and your moth- 


88 


A DOZEN GOOD TIMES. 


er’s with her. Was your mother invited, 
too.?’’ 

“ No, she wasn’t,” answered Florence ; 
“ I wonder what made her come.” 

Florence, Georgina, and Dolly ran into 
the hall just as Mrs. Golden led Sibyl in. 
Mrs. Howitt also went to meet them. 

“Why, Sibyl,” exclaimed Mrs. Howitt, 
“ I was afraid you were not coming.” 

Sibyl looked embarrassed, and Mrs. 
Howitt noticed that her eyes were quite 
red. Mrs. Golden smiled and shook her 
head at Mrs. Howitt, and when Sibyl had 
gone into the parlor, she told the story of 
her little girl’s mishap. 

It seems that when her caller had gone, 
she ran as quickly as possible to get her 
hat, and go to the party. But in her 
haste she went to the house next to the 
party-house, which was not strange, as 


AN AUGUST PARTY. 


89 


Mrs. Howitt lived in a block of houses 
all precisely alike. She rang the bell, and 
a lady whom she slightly knew came to 
the door, invited her in, and gave her a 
seat in the parlor. Then the lady talked 
to her kindly, wondering what a five-year- 
old girl could want. It was some time 
before Sibyl could get courage to ask: 

“ Is this the party’s house ? ” 

But it was not long before she ran 
away, when she learned it was not. Poor 
Sibyl ! Weeping, she told her mamma her 
awful mistake ; and, as soon asher tears 
were dried, her mamma took her to the 
“ party’s house,” which was not far away. 

If you could have seen the table set for 
those happy little people, you would have 
wanted to be one of them. The good 
things looked so tempting, and at each 
plate was set a tiny vase of glass, shaped 


90 


A DOZEN GOOD TIMES. 


like a barrel, and holding a lovely flower 
and a slip of geranium. 

I once heard of a little boy who went 
to a party and had 
chocolate cake, cocoa- 
nut cake, pound cake, 
and fruit cake, and 
when he got home he 
had stomach-ache. But 
Mrs. Howitt’s healthful 
good things made no- 
body sick. However, 
in his eagerness to get 
some of them, Alexan- 
der got hurt. They 
marched out in pairs, 
but Alexander, getting 

AT THE WRONG DOOR. ^ ^ 

in a hurry, ran ahead, 
and seized another boy’s chair. The boy 
hung on, as he had a right to do, and 



AN AUGUST PARTY. 


91 


Alexander actually tried to kick him, — 
before all those nice little people, too. 
But, missing his mark, he struck his toe 
on the chair-leg, and cried like a nine- 
year-old baby. You will always find that 
people willing to hurt others make a 
great fuss when they are hurt themselves. 

The children, on going home, told Mrs. 
Howitt they had had a lovely time. Dolly 
declared, when she got home, that it was 
more than lovely, — it was “ perkly lovely.” 
“ But that Augazander, he acted awful,” 
she said. 

“Yes, he truly did, mamma,” said Geor- 
gina. “ If my father was as rich as any- 
thing, I would be ashamed to act like he 
does.” 

“ Being rich makes no difference,” said 
Mrs. Pettitt. “ Children should be polite 
whether their fathers are rich or poor.” 


92 


A DOZEN GOOD TIMES. 


“ Of course, I know that, mamma,” an- 
swered Georgina. But it seems as if bad 
actions show off more in rich folks.” 

That night, after they were tucked 
away, and had said “ Good night ” for the 
last time, Dolly suddenly spoke: 

“ Georgina, that Augazander is terrible 
to butterflies. Helen Southcolt says so.” 

“Is he? To dear little butterflies! 
What does he do ? ” 

“ Why, he catches them in his hat and 
sits on the hat.” 


CHAPTER IX. 


THE INTERSTATE FAIR. 

“ I AM afraid it wouldn’t be wise to go to- 
day,” said Mrs. Pettitt, looking at the sky. 

“ Let’s go if it isn’t wise,” said Dolly ; 
“ I never went only to free or four fairs.” 

“ Well, isn’t that almost a plenty for a 
girl only five last month ? ” asked her 
mother. 

“ I suppose it will be when she’s been 
to this,” said Mr. Pettitt. “Let us risk it.” 

Georgina, who had been looking anx- 
ious, but saying little, brightened, and 
both girls were in high spirits as they 
saw their mother get the lunch-basket 
ready, and felt that doubt was at an 


93 


94 A DOZEN GOOD TIMES. 

end. And the sunshine in the faces of 
the children more than made up for the 
lack of it outdoors. 



No wonder little people like to go to 
fairs when so many big people cannot 
stay away. The grounds were crowded 
when the Pettitts drove in, and the noise 


THE INTERSTATE FAIR. 


95 


of the shoutings, and various kinds of 
music, filled the hearts of Georgina and 
Dolly with joy that would have been per- 
fect, except for the perplexity of trying to 
hear, at the same time, what the museum 
man, the yeast man, and the pain-killer 
man were saying. 

Mr. Pettitt tied “ Colonel ” in a safe 
place, leaving his family near the stove- 
hall, while he was gone. 

They stepped to the entrance door, 
and looked in while they waited, and 
whom should they see but the Ruther- 
ford twins, sitting on a stove hearth to 
rest. 

The twins had been through the main 
hall before, and knew what would prob- 
ably most interest their friends. And they 
led the way to the ice-cream making ma- 
chine, the incubator full of cunning downy 


96 


A DOZEN GOOD TIMES. 


chicks, the booths where they could get 
tiny cups of chocolate, and tea from 
beef-extract, free, and to the wonderful 
automatic doll. This doll was an ele- 
gantly dressed image, and sat in a chair, 
playing a tambourine which she struck 
on her elbow and knee, and shook till its 
tiny bells jingled again. Then she would 
hold a black mask before her face with 
her left hand, and peep through it at the 
spectators, quite roguishly. It was hard 
to convince the children, even after they 
had looked at it a good while, that they 
had examined it long enough. 

Another great attraction was the stuffed 
twin calves, who were joined together at 
the neck. The Rutherfords were glad all 
twins were not like that. 

“ It must seem funny to be twins, any- 
how,” said Georgina. 


DRINKING CHOCOLATE AT THE FAIR. 









THE INTERSTATE FAIR. 


99 


“ I fink it would be nice to have some 
twin sisters, though,” said Dolly. 

“ Mamma said Blanche cried when she 
first saw us,” said Ruth. Blanche was 
big sister to the twins. 

“ Did she ? I should think she would 
liked you,” said Georgina. 

“ She did,” said Anna. “ But she didn’t 
know you could buy a baby carriage for 
twins, and she cried because she didn’t 
want to leave the other one, when she 
took one of us to ride.” 

The Rutherfords did not stay long. 
They had been at the fair one day al- 
ready, and were only down for a little 
while, on their way home to Pixburg. 

After they were gone, the Pettitts de- 
cided to go to the stables, and see the 
horses, intending to return to the main 
hall to get their lunch. On their way 


lOO 


A DOZEN GOOD TIMES. 


they noticed that it sprinkled slightly, 
and they had been in the stables but a 
few minutes, when they could hear the 
rain pouring upon the roof. 

They hoped it would stop. And it did 
next day. But for that day and all night 
long it came down in torrents. They 
were safe enough, and dry, in the stables, 
but after they had looked at all the big 
horses and little horses, they were discour- 
aged to see that neither waterproofs nor 
umbrellas could save them from a drench- 
ing, if they should venture out. They 
were hungry, too, and their lunch was in 
the main hall. 

“ Such a fair as this isn’t fair, is it ? ” 
said Mr. Pettitt. 

But it might have been worse. One of 
the horsemen offered them the use of the 
little room where he slept, which was 


THE INTERSTATE FAIR. 


lOI 


quite snug and neat, and the horseman s 
wife shared an excellent lunch with them. 
And the children were quite interested 
in the pictures tacked on the walls, repre- 
senting horses doing all sorts of remark- 
able feats. Besides, they received a letter. 
They would not have received it so soon, 
because their papa was not a very prompt 
postman, if Dolly had not fished it out of 
his pocket in a restless search for enter- 
tainment. 

‘^Why, here’s a letter ’at isn’t open,” 
she said. 

“ I declare ! ” exclaimed Mr. Pettitt, “ I 
came near forgetting that letter. I was 
in the post-office last night; and the car- 
rier saw me, and gave it to me.” 

It was from Mrs. Townville to Mrs. 
Pettitt, and in it was a letter from little 
Carl Townville to the girls. It said: 


102 


A DOZEN GOOD TIMES. 


“ Dear Georgina and Dolly : 

“ I am in the house and will write a 
little letter to thoes who can read boy’s 
letters, boys cannot rite and noboudy can 
read it. my letter is about some old- 
clothes-men I saw on the second-hand 
close street, so I can’t wast time telling 
anything else. The first thing about old- 
close-men they are pretty fat and have a 
bump on their nose, they have quite big 
eyes and they chew gum quite offen. they 
are not very tidy, they have big heads, 
and some of them smoke, too, and most 
always they are saying something. I 
guess I’ll close my letter now, becase 
mamma is going to read us a story, and 
I will have to get in bed. 

“ Carl Townville.” 


Mrs. Townville said this was Carl’s 


THE INTERSTATE FAIR. 


103 


first letter, and the Pettitts thought it 
uncommonly amusing from a boy younger 
than Georgina. 

After the letters were read, nothing 
more happened until Mr. Pettitt told 
them they would have to go home, rain 
or no rain, for water was covering the 
grounds, and the walks were all afloat. 
At this news they resolved to start, and 
bundling up as best they could, they rode 
home through a steady, heavy storm, and 
all were pretty wet when they got there. 

“ I believe it wasn’t wise to go,” said 
Georgina ; “ we couldn’t hardly get any 
chance to see.” 

“We got plenty of chance to see 
horses,” said Dolly. 


CHAPTER X. 

THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA. 

“ It must have rained to that fair, too,” 
said Dolly. She was looking at some 
souvenir pictures of the Columbian Ex- 
position, and noticed the waterways. 

“ It isn’t rain makes that,” said Geor- 
gina. “ They built the buildings by the 
water on purpose.” 

“ What did they for ? ” asked Dolly, 
regarding the beautiful illustrations with 
interest. 

“ I suppose because Columbus discov- 
ered America on the water,” said Geor- 
gina. 

104 


THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA. I05 

“ Why, did he ? What is America ? ” 

“ It’s where you live. Not Queenton, I 
don’t mean, but like this room is in the 
house, and the house is in the yard, and 
the yard’s in Queenton, just the same, 
Queenton’s in New York State, and New 
York State is in the United States, and 
the United States’s in America.” 

“Yes, that’s so,” said Dolly, ashamed to 
own she did not understand it a mite. 

“ Was C’lumbus alive when he discov- 
ered America ? ” she asked, presently. 

“ Oh, yes ! or he couldn’t have done it.” 

“ That’s so. I forgot. But now he’s 
dead, isn’t he ? ” 

“Yes, Dolly. He’s very dead. You 
can’t think how dead he is! Why, he’s 
been dead four hundred years, and buried 
three times.” 

“Yes; I should fink that would kill 


io6 


A DOZEN GOOD TIMES. 


him,” said Dolly. “What is when you 
discover ? ” 

“Well, ril tell you. It’s to find things. 
Miss Snyder told us the whole of it, while 
the Fair was going on, and it was four 
hundred years ago then, but they couldn’t 
get the Fair ready on the very year.” 

“ I should fink they could in four hun- 
dred years,” said Dolly. 

“ Oh ! they didn’t begin as soon as 
America was discovered. Besides, it 
took Columbus a good while to get it 
discovered, so they could have a fair. 
First, he found an island.” 

“Did he? Where did he find it.?” 

“ Oh ! in the water. Islands always 
grow in the water. And Columbus, as 
soon as the king and queen where he 
lived bought him three boats, he started 
to discover something. He didn’t know 


THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA. IO7 

as it was America. But he knew the 
world wasn’t flat.” 

“ The world is bent,” said Dolly. “ It’s 
bent awful rounding. Mamma showed 
me on a globe in the book store.” 

“Yes; but real big men didn’t use to 
know it; and they thought Columbus 
would sail to the end and fall off, you 
know, — come to the edge and tumble 
over.” 

“ But he didn’t, did he ? ” 

“Why, no. He sailed with a big boat 
full of men, and two more boats full sailed 
along, and the boats were like ships. 
And they went, and went, and by and 
by they saw land, and Columbus, he put 
on a kind of dress, and got in a boat, and 
some more with him, and they landed, 
and he knelt down and prayed.” 

“ What for ? ” 


Io8 A DOZEN GOOD TIMES. 

“ He was thankful he’d got there,” an- 
swered Georgina. 

“ Then what did he do ? ” 

“ He planted a Spanish standard.” 

“ What did he plant it for ? ” 

“ I don’t know as I know. Miss Snyder 
didn’t tell us. But I guess because the 
island was so wild and had nothing but 
trees on it, so he planted a standard.” 

Mrs. Pettitt had quietly listened, think- 
ing Georgina was getting along pretty 
well. But now she added a bit to the 
story, that she might set right the odd 
error. 

“ Georgina,” she said, “ a standard is a 
long staff bearing a banner used by the 
nation it represents. A standard is like 
a flag.” 

“ Oh ! ” said Georgina, “ I didn’t know 
that. Miss Snyder just said they planted 


THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA. lOQ 

a standard, and I thought maybe it was 
like a tree, or something to raise to eat, 
or like that.” 

Mrs. Pettitt saw how easily children fail 
to understand things that grown people 
know so well that they sometimes forget 
how once they did not know them at all. 

“You please tell it,” said Georgina. 
“You know it better. And please tell 
how he planted the standard.” Dolly 
joined in the request. 

“ He took the flag in his hand, and 
stepping on the land, thrust the end of 
the staff in the ground.” 

“ What did he do afterwards } ” asked 
Dolly. 

“ He explored the island, and made 
friends with the people who lived there, 
and visited other islands. And he came 
from Spain four times. His body, what 


I lO 


A DOZEN GOOD TIMES. 


was left of it, was at last taken to Cuba, 
the largest of the islands which he dis- 
covered, and buried in Havana.” 

Mrs. Pettitt took a map and showed the 
little girls the port from which Columbus 
sailed, and the path of his first voyage, 
and the lands he discovered and explored. 

The next day they made a game, rig- 
ging out a cart and two doll-carriages as 
ships, putting in all the big and little.dolls 
for sailors. And they took their papa’s 
cane for a standard. Then they started 
on their voyage of discovery, through the 
deep waters of the dining-room, sitting- 
room, and parlor, discovering a number 
of islands in the front hall, composed of 
rugs. One of these islands had a lion 
woven in it, and on this they landed, 
Georgina promptly slaying the animal 
with a poker, and then, planting her 



THEIR MOTHER SHOWS THEM THE MAP, 






THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA. II3 

standard in /great style, announced that 
this was America. 

It was a most successful voyage, and 



they returned from it with lovely gifts 
to present to the good Queen Isabella, 
who had helped to plan and mark out 
their trip. The queen, looking much 


I 14 A DOZEN GOOD TIMES. 

like Mrs. Pettitt, was mending children’s 
clothes by a window, when they arrived, 
and she appeared overjoyed at the safe 
return of the mariners. She even kissed 
Columbus and his first assistant, and 
shook hands with several of the crew. 


CHAPTER XI. 

THANKSGIVING. 

When the cook has gone away to 
spend Thanksgiving among her own 
folks, and there is church to attend, and 
a public dinner for the newsboys, there 
is not much time for a housewife to get a 
dinner. This is why the Pettitts were 
going to eat Thanksgiving dinner at the 
“ coffee-house,” a very nice establishment 
where many business men, and not a few 
families, took their meals. 

It was the first time that the Pettitt 
family had ever eaten a holiday dinner 
at any table but their own. 


5 


Il6 A DOZEN GOOD TIMES. 

First they went to church, where the 
beautiful singing pleased the little girls, 
and where something happened which 
much displeased Dolly. She told her 
mother about it, on her way to the coffee- 
house. 

“ I don’t fink it was very nice, what the 
minister said, and the collection-man did.” 

“ What was that, dear ? ” asked mamma. 

“ Well, the minister said to pass the col- 
lection for the poor, and the collection- 
man brought the basket to us in front of 
the whole church. Did he fink we were 
poor ? ” 

“Oh, Dolly!” exclaimed Georgina, 
“ don’t you know more than that ? The 
collection for the poor is to get money 
in the basket to give to poor folks.” 

“Was it.f^” asked Dolly of her mother, 
and being assured it was, she felt greatly 


THANKSGIVING. 


II7 

relieved. At the coffee-house the Pettitts 
waited in the parlor until the dinner-bell 
rang. Dolly walked about, talking con- 
stantly as she examined this and that 
novelty. 

“ I hope well have a normous big tur- 



THE THANKSGIVING DINNER. 


key, like the ones we saw in the meat 
grocery,” she said. 

“ Yes,” said Georgina, “ and soup, and 
cranberry sauce, and olives, and cake, 
and jelly — ” 

Just here a short young man, with a 


Il8 A DOZEN GOOD TIMES. 

thin mustache, came into the room, and 
asked what was wanted, and Mr. Pettitt 
had hard work convincing him that no 
one wanted anything. As only the Pet- 
titts were there, he was greatly puzzled, 
saying he could not understand why the 
electric bell had rung if nobody had rung 
it. 

As they were going down to dinner, 
Dolly pulled her mother’s hand, and 
touching an electric button before her 
mother could prevent, said : 

“What is this, mamma? It’s loose.” 

“ Why, Dolly ! ” exclaimed her mother ; 
“ that will ring a bell, and some one will 
come to see what is wanted.” 

Dolly, in great fear, insisted on hiding 
somewhere, and when the young man 
with the thin mustache appeared again, 
she was sadly frightened, and needed all 



DOLLY TOUCHES THE BUTTON. 





THANKSGIVING. 


I2I 


the comfort her mother could give her, to 
restore her to her usual cheerfulness. 

Dolly’s mistake was explained to the 
young man, who went away rather out 
of patience with children. 

“ I didn’t know it would ring,” said 
Dolly, penitently. “ Did it, before, when 
I pushed it ? ” 

“ Did you push it before ? ” asked Mrs. 
Pettitt. “ Then that was why the boy 
came up the other time.” 

“ Please ’scuse me,” entreated Dolly, in 
such distress as nearly brought tears to 
her eyes. And as it was Thanksgiving, 
they “ ’sensed ” her. 

It was a splendid dinner, and Dolly 
wished they could come there every day. 

That evening Mrs. Pettitt told the girls 
a Thanksgiving story she had read. It 
was about a little New England girl of 


122 


A DOZEN GOOD TIMES. 


many years ago, before it was the custom 
for a President to set the date for this 
special holiday. The little girl was in- 
vited to go with her parents a number 
of miles to spend Thanksgiving, and 
when they got there. Thanksgiving was 
postponed in the little settlement, because 
the supply of molasses was gone, and 
they had nothing to sweeten the pumpkin 
pies. You see they had no sugar, and 
thought they could not celebrate Thanks- 
giving without pumpkin pies. 

“ Oh, dear ! if I had lived then, I 
wouldn’t have had a Fanksgiving,” said 
Dolly. 

“Yes, you would, if you were the right 
sort of old-time New England girl. In 
those days they felt rich and thankful for 
a good crop of corn, for flour, salt meats, 
and vegetables in store for winter, and for 


THANKSGIVING. 


123 


homespun clothes to wear. And they 
were glad to go to church and pray and 
thank God, though the sermon was often 
two hours long, and there were no cush- 
ions on the seats. Only such thankful 
people would have thought of establish- 
ing Thanksgiving Day at all. It is the 
heart, not what we have, that makes us 
grateful.” 

They talked about these things, and 
Georgina and Dolly learned a lesson of 
real thankfulness. And they talked of 
other Thanksgivings they could remem- 
ber. 

“ Mamma,” said Georgina, “ you remem- 
ber that funny boy that brought his dog, 
when he came to spend Thanksgiving to 
Mrs. Baker’s ? ” 

“Yes, I remember him very well,” an- 
swered Mrs. Pettitt. 


124 


A DOZEN GOOD TIMES. 


“Well, I forgot to tell you; when I 
went to Mrs. Bakers to take her that 
house-plant, she showed me a new pic- 
ture he had taken, with his dog, and not 
any of the dog shows, but his tail.” 

“ Why doesn’t the dog show ? ” asked 
Dolly. 

“ Because, Mrs. Baker said, the photo- 
graph man stood the boy up, holding the 
dog’s little chain, and the dog sitting by 
him. And the dog got scared, and ran 
around behind the boy, just as the picture 
was taking, and only just his tail shows.” 

“ That’s real funny,” said Mrs. Pettitt. 

“ Yes, it’s funny, but I don’t see much 
Fanksgiving about it,” said Dolly. 

“ Nobody said it was Thanksgiving,” 
answered Georgina. 

“ Didn’t you say the picture was tooken 
Fanksgiving ? ” . 


THANKSGIVING. 


125 


“ No, Dolly, I didn’t." 

“ Well, what did you say about Fanks- 
giving?" 

“ I said the boy spent last Thanksgiving 
with Mrs. Baker.” 

“ Oh ! " said Dolly, with a long wink. 

“ Dolly’s sleepy, and you must both go 
to bed,” said Mrs. Pettitt. When she had 
given them their last Thanksgiving kiss 
Dolly said : 

“ I hope my tooth will get out, and 
my two-th tooth get in by next Thanks- 
giving.” 

“ Why ? ” asked mamma. 

“ Because it’s loose a little, and it shook 
some, when I was biting my dinner.” 


CHAPTER XII. 

MERRY CHRISTMAS. 

“ Why don’t we just as well say, ‘ Happy 
Christmas,’ and ‘Merry New Year’.?” 
asked Georgina, after they had heard 
the greeting “ Merry Christmas,” many 
times that day. 

“ I am afraid I can’t tell for certain,” 
answered her mother. “ It is the custom, 
and I think it more reasonable to wish 
our friends a merry day than a whole 
merry year.” 

“ I don’t see why,” said Georgina. 
“Isn’t happy about the same as merry.?” 

“ No, it is quite different. We may be 

126 


MERRY CHRISTMAS. 


127 


very happy without being merry, though 
we cannot be merry without being happy.” 

“Won’t you please explain it?” asked 
Georgina. 

“ When I take an hour to read you a 



story, ^or to tell you one,” answered Mrs. 
Pettitt, “you are very quiet. You do not 
jump about, nor laugh aloud, nor show 
your pleasure in any noisy way. Yet 
you are not sad.” 


128 


A DOZEN GOOD TIMES. 


“ I should think I wasn’t,” said Geor- 
gina. “ I would almost rather be read to, 
or have stories told, than anything.” 

“ But when you are playing tag, or any 
other lively game, you scream, and laugh, 
and have a gay time. Now, when you en- 
joy anything, without noise and mirth, you 
are simply happy. But when you are full 
of fun and noise about your pleasure, you 
are merry.” 

“ Well, why couldn’t we be merry a 
whole year .? ” 

“ Think how tired you were the morn- 
ing after the Fourth. You were dull, and 
your head and limbs ached. You had to 
go back to bed, and you ate nothing but 
tea and toast all day. It was because you 
had worn yourself out with the merriment 
of the day before. I am afraid if any of 
us should begin a year in that way and 


MERRY CHRISTMAS. 


129 


keep it up for many days, we would be so 
tired, if indeed there was anything left of 
us, that we could not enjoy the special 
merry days when they came. This is 
one reason why I think it better to wish 
a happy New Year than a merry one. 
If it is happy, it can be merry, too, at 
times; but if we tried to make it all 
merry, very soon it would not even be 
happy.” 

“ That’s so,” agreed Georgina. “ But 
how funny it is that it’s so.” 

“ Little Bessie Sanborne,” said mamma, 
“ used to say the oddest things. And 
one of them was about Christmas. She 
thought it was Mary Christmas, and one 
Christmas night, after she had enjoyed a 
lovely day, she said to her mamma, “ I 
guess Mary Christmas must be Santa 
Claus’s daughter, don’t you ? ” 


130 


A DOZEN GOOD TIMES. 


“ Tell that ’nother one about the claws,” 
said Dolly, who was having such a so- 
ciable visit with her new child, Anna 
Bell, that she had not seemed to hear 
until now. 

“ Oh ! I have told you that lots of 
times,” said mamma. “You tell it to 
Georgina and me.” 

“ Oh ! I kind of forget how it goes. 
Just tell it this one ’nother time.” 

“Very well; ‘one ’nother’ time, then,” 
said Mrs. Pettitt. 

“ Once, on Christmas eve, a little boy I 
know asked his mother, when he was 
going to bed, to please sleep with him. 
She asked him if he felt sick. He said 
no, and would give no reason for his wish. 
His mother told him she would sit by him 
till he was asleep, but could not leave the 
baby and sleep with him. So she sat 


MERRY CHRISTMAS. 


I3I 

down by him, and pretty soon he said, 
‘ Are they awful long claws ? ’ His 
mother, surprised, asked, ‘ What claws ? ’ 
and the little boy answered, ‘ Santa 
Claws ! ’ ” 

“ I should fink he would be afraid,” 
said Dolly. “Just fink of claws!” 

“ Ruby Roe teased to sit up and watch 
till Santa Claus came, but her mamma 
wouldn’t let her,” said Georgina. “ Did 
you ever want to sit up and watch when 
you were little ? ” 

“ I don’t remember wanting to sit up, 
but one Christmas eve, when my mother 
was gone to see a sick neighbor, and did 
not go up to bed with me and tuck me in, 
as usual, I got into bed with my clothes 
on, shoes and all. The girl who worked 
for us came, when I called, and took the 
light away. After she had gone, I put a 


132 


A DOZEN GOOD TIMES. 


pillow in the corner of the bed next the 
wall, and sat up against it, so I could be 
almost up and entirely dressed in the 
morning. I thought this would not 
waste any time, and after awhile I went 
to sleep in that queer condition.” 

“ Did you wake up early ? ” asked Dolly. 

“ I am not sure whether it was early in 
the morning, or late at night, when I first 
woke. It was very dark, and I had slid 
down on the pillow until only my head 
sat up in the corner, giving me a dread- 
fully stiff neck. My clothes were all 
twisted and rolled about me, too, and I 
was a miserably uncomfortable child.” 

“ Did you get up and undress ? ” asked 
Georgina. 

“ No ; everybody was asleep, and I was 
afraid. So I smoothed myself and pillow 
out the best I could, and went to sleep 


SHE WANTED TO BE READY TO SEE SANTA CLAUS. 






t 


MERRY CHRISTMAS. 


135 


again. But I was not at all a merry-look- 
ing child in the morning.” 

“ Did your mother know it ? ” 

“ Oh, yes ! and she took off my mussed 
garments, freshened me with a bath, and 
advised me quite earnestly never to do 
so again. But I did not need advice. 
One such experiment was enough for 
me.” 

“ That was awful funny,” said Georgina. 

“ There doesn’t anyfing happen to any- 
fing else, as funny as happens to Christ- 
mas, does there ? ” said Dolly, with her 
usual manner of getting a long sentence 
together. 

“ I know it,” agreed Georgina. 

I am really sorry to part with my 
readers without telling them more about 
the Pettitt Christmas. But people can- 
not go on writing forever, because there 


136 


A DOZEN GOOD TIMES. 


is no room to print so much. But, little 
men and women, I wish that all your 
Christmases may be as merry and fortu- 
nate as have been those of Georgina and 
Dolly. 



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